Rob's Off-Road & 4 Wheel Drive Center Scammed by ID Theif & Rob's Off-Road in Clackamas Oregon

I read this story three years ago when I researched a quality Diesel and 4wd mechanic, and am glad I gave Rob and his staff a chance.  I believe in any dispute there is truth with both stories and since I have no knowledge of the story mentioned above, I will state only my own personal experience.

I own a 2010 custom four-wheel drive van with a ton of aftermarket off-road additions.  Rob and his main mechanic Brian both were willing and interested in helping me design many aspects of the various systems unique for my purpose.  If you want QUALITY work and are willing to pay a very REASONABLE price to have it done right.  Reasonable is a relative term, but they do honor their bids. I highly recommend them.

They effectively bulletproofed my 6.0 PSD, custom built a tertiary transmission cooler, built custom mounting brackets for various systems where there is almost no market for vans, such as tranny filters, coolant filters, AIRDOG II, air intakes, etc.

Anyone with a Quigley, Quadvan, Sportsmobile and needing a mechanic to do quality work seek these guys out.  Any issue with your van probably was already figured out on my van.  Although trucks are their specialty, they also have built 4wd vans as well.  We have been in discussion and considering placing a Cummins in a Ford E350.  

If you have any questions, Rob is very transparent and direct.  He know my van well and will tell you anything about it.  

Sincerely,

John Ketcham
Portland, OR
j.ketcham@yahoo.com

I did not realize that there was a complaint listed on this site or I would have replied sooner. Robs Off Road is a very customer friendly business but there are some people we dont want to deal with. I refuse to do business with liars, cheats and people who write bad checks. Corey came in and checked prices on some tires with Brandon who is one of my counter sales people. Brandon checked price and availability for Corey and found that the tires he wanted were a few days out and that they are special order and not refundable. Corey was fine with that and wrote a check for the purchase of the tires and signed a copy of the sales invoice that states clearly on the bottom that there are no returnes on special orders and that we have a 25% restocking fee on returned parts.

Brandon ran his check through our check verification machine and it was approved. We are charged a 3% fee to run a check through this process but it is good insurance with the amount of people writing bad checks these days. These were tires we did not have in stock and the local distributors did not have any in stock therfore they are special order tires. Special orders are not generally returnable but we occasionally make exceptions depending on the circumstances. Brandon then did our internal paper work and created a purchase order for the tires and turned the purchase order into my purchasing agent who immediately ordered the tires from our vendor who we have a credit card account with. The vendor immediately charges our credit card and schedules the tires for delivery to us. Two tires were coming from Washington and would be in the next day and the other two were coming from California and would be two or three days out.

Later in the day Corey called and asked if Brandon could give him a better deal on the tires he had already purchased because he found them cheaper at another tire shop. Brandon told him no that they are already ordered and paid for and that we were just barely over cost on the tires that there was no room to come down on the price. We also know there are tire shops that will sell tires at a loss just to take the business away from a competitor, we wont do that. Corey then later called back and said his checking account was overdrawn because of fraud and we needed to refund his money and that his check was going to bounce.. We can not refund money we have not received.. When we ran his check through the check machine it is like running a credit card it debits his account but the money does not hit our account for one to five days. We can not do a check reversal like a credit card reversal.

I was pretty sure at this time Corey was playing games with us and that this was only going to get better and I told Brandon to tell him that we could not do anything except wait and see if the money goes into our account. The money did go into our account after three days. So his check did not bounce as he stated. I then get a phone call from Corey wanting me to refund him and I told him the tires were on the freight truck as we spoke and I could not refund him without a large restocking fee to send them back because we are going to get charged a large restocking fee. Then he cussed me out and hung up on me. I figured at this point he had bought the tires at another tire shop or online for a better deal and was now trying to find a way to get out of paying for the ones he ordered from us..

I then get a phone call from my merchant services notifying me that Corey had done a stop payment with his bank for the check he had written to us and that they had to refund the money to him. I told them that I disagreed with that decision and that I had a approved check recepit from their machine signed and authorized by Corey and a signed sales invoice, they said it does not matter that they have to refund him and if I want to pursue it I have to file a check fraud report with the Oregon attorney general that they would go after Corey for check fraud. He also stated it was illegal to do a stop payment on a check to get out of paying for something. I decided that I didn't want any more hassles and would just to eat the cost of the fees and pay the restocking fees that I will be charged to send the tires back.

Corey then shows up at my store and is at first friendly and appologizes for what he said to me on the phone and for hanging up on me. I said no problem. He then goes into this whole story about someone fraudulanty using his account and his account is overdrawn and we need to refund his money because its our fault his account is overdrawn. Where do these people come from? I told him I could not refund his money because of him doing a stop payment on his check. He then starts yelling at me demanding the refund and I told him I would not be refunding his money that he would have to wait until the stop payment he made on his check went through and merchant services reversed the charges and put the money back into his checking account. I told him this is not our fault and its not our fault your account is overdrawn. He storms out of the shop yelling the whole way that this is a xxxxnnxxnx way to do business, gets in his pickup and burns rubber out of my parking lot and down the street.

My customers were in shock with his actions and language and so were the two children in the waiting area. I guess it takes all kinds to make the world go round. But thanks to Corey we no longer take checks of any kind so the honest people out there that like to write checks sorry you can thank Corey and his kind for businesses not taking checks anymore. I never turned Corey into collections as he has stated even though I could have. Costco merchant services may be pursuing him for bank charges incurred do to his little game, they are the ones who approved his check and gave us the authorization number, but it has nothing to do with us.

I never called Corey a tweaker but if the shoe fits wear it. Corey also stated we ran his check twice and charged him twice. He also stated we gave him his check back after running it through the machine, we can not run a check twice, the machine scans the check and voids it from further use but we didn't have it to run twice because he took the voided check with him after we ran it through the machine the first time as he stated. The problem with liars is they can't keep all their different stories straight.

And Corey you should thank me for not turning you into the Oregon Attorney General for check fraud. I still have all the paper work signed by Corey and the check authorization signed by him and if need be I will be more than happy to turn all this over to the Oregon Attorney General and let them run with it. Maybe that would be the right thing to do to help protect other businesses from having to put up with this type of BS

If anyone has any questions about this please feel free to call me any time at 503-650-6101. Rob Hartshorn - Owner, Robs Off Road and Four Wheel Drive Center. We are not perfect and we do occassionally make mistakes and we try to make things right for people as best we can.

Well, the saga continues!

The bank's fraud officer got my money back and I thought the whole sorry mess was over. Today I just got a call from a COLLECTION AGENCY who had been hired by Rob's Off-Road & 4 Wheel Drive Center to collect the money for the tires they DIDN'T sell me! Beware if you ever do business with this place!!!